Hell upon Earth or the Language of the Playhouse

Abstract

In 1719 the Reverend Arthur Bedford, rector of Newton St Loe in Somerset, published a book running to 400 pages, entitled, A Serious Remonstrance in Behalf of the Christian Religion, against the Horrid Blasphemies and Impieties which are still Used in the English Playhouses, to the Great Dishonour of Almighty God and in Contempt of the Statutes of this Realm. Shewing their Plain Tendency to Overthrow all Piety, and Advance the Interest and Honour of the Devil in the World; from almost Seven Thousand Instances, Taken out of the Plays of the Present Century, and especially of the Last Five Years, in Defiance of all Methods hitherto Used for their Reformation . 1 As the title suggests, this offered an exhaustive analysis of the language used in the texts of the plays recently performed and published, intended to demonstrate that such language amounted to a conspiracy to invert the religious order of England, replacing the authorized language of the Bible and Protestant Christianity with diabolic and pagan language, such that participation in the theatre was, in effect, the worship of the devil.

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